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Longmont's "new" mall: Village at the Peaks

Whole Foods signs on as the natural foods anchor

By Tony KindelspireLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
05/07/2013 03:15:47 PM MDT

Updated:
05/07/2013 06:46:29 PM MDT

Village at the Peaks will be the new name of the redeveloped Twin Peaks Mall, and Whole Foods has signed a lease to be one of the tenants. The new state-of-the-art movie theater will be operated by Regal Entertainment Group and the developers have also signed an as-yet-undisclosed "membership club warehouse."
(Artist's rendering courtesy of NewMark Merrill Mountain States)

LONGMONT --Village at the Peaks will be the name of the redeveloped Twin Peaks Mall property once it opens for business in 2014. And Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods has signed on to be a part of it.

NewMark Merrill Mountain States, the mall's owner that is spearheading the redevelopment, has released a leasing flier with a headline announcing, "It may be the hottest redevelopment in Colorado in over 5 years (but we still have space for you)."

The flier calls Village at the Peaks a "super-regional destination for shopping, great restaurants and state-of-the-art entertainment."

In its most recent quarterly earnings report on Tuesday, Whole Foods announced it recently had signed 10 new leases for stores averaging 37,500 square feet, and it listed Longmont as one of the communities it would be opening in.

A natural grocery store always has been part of his company's plans, according to Allen Ginsborg, NewMark Merrill's managing director and principal, and he said Whole Foods was his company's first choice. The deal took about six months to finalize.

"All the polling we did (of what Longmont wanted) ... the top priority was a new movie theater and right after that was a natural grocer," Ginsborg said Tuesday.

The leasing flier highlights Regal Entertainment Group's planned movie theater, with 12 screens and more than 2,500 seats. And the flier notes plans for a "membership club warehouse," which NewMark Merrill has said it has signed but has agreed to not name publicly.

"We call them the 'big three' of the redevelopment agreement and those are now well on down the road," said Brad Power, the city's economic development director. "It is a major hurdle that has been completed."

The city's agreement with the developer called for signing those three main types of anchors, and then a specified number of smaller retailers and restaurants that will be located within the "village" portion of the redevelopment, Power said.

Regarding the new Village at the Peaks name, Ginsborg said settling in on that was "a pretty lengthy process."

He said it was important to him and his team that the new name reflect the outstanding views of Longs Peak and Mount Meeker from the 75-acre mall property, something he said "is such a rare feature to have at any (retail) location."

"We didn't want to completely discard (the old name), but at the same time we didn't want to call it a mall any more because that connotation doesn't fit any more," Ginsborg said.

The city's agreement with the developer calls for it to contribute up to $27.5 million of the $80 million price tag for the redevelopment if certain conditions are met. The city will issue bonds that will be repaid over 25 years by the additional sales and property tax generated by the mall -- known as tax increment financing, or TIF -- and by a mill levy the mall will place on itself.

Along with it landing certain types of retailers, NewMark Merrill's agreement with Longmont requires demolition of the existing mall to be completed and construction to have begun by the end of this year, and at least 75 percent of the mall must be finished and open for business by the holiday season of 2014.

What's yet to be decided is the fate of Dillard's, which owns its own building and property inside of the 75-acre NewMark Merrill land.

Months of talks between NewMark Merrill and the retailer failed to produce an agreement for the Little Rock, Ark.-based company to be a part of the redeveloped mall. The developer had claimed its hands were tied because Dillard's existing agreements give it veto power over any redevelopment on the property, and Dillard's has not commented on why no deal could be worked out.

In April, the Longmont City Council -- acting as the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority -- voted 6-1 to initiate eminent domain proceedings against the retailer. The two sides are in a silent negotiating period, and ultimately the outcome will be decided between the city and Dillard's, or by the courts.

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